The inclusion of rigorous tasks in competitions for young managers would prepare them for the responsibilities ahead, the President and Chairman of Council, Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) chartered, Prof. Olukunle Iyanda has said.

The NIM boss, ins his welcome address at the 2018 young managers’ competition grand finale in Lagos, on ‘Nurturing the Nation’s Managers of Tomorrow’, mentioned the likes of Dr Micheal Omolayole, Dr John Abebe and late Gamaliel Onosode among others who started their career as young managers and proved their outstanding qualities in most areas of management.

For this year’s competition, he said out of total of 246 young managers including females that applied for the competition, only 154 participated in an online qualifying test, while at the end of the online test, nine persons were adjudged qualified to be part of the final stage of the competition while five contestants made it to the top.

The five contestants made presentations on the topic, ‘Rethinking management in a Changing World’, where they honed their skills on the subject matter.Judging by their performances, one of the contestants, Ayodeji Odeleye won the star prize with a cash prize of N1.5million. For the runner ups, the first, Akinwale Iyeku; second, Caleb Eke and third, Ibidunni Lawani were rewarded with N800,000; N500,000 and N200,000 worth of management training at the institute’s headquarters respectively.

Congratulating the participants, Iyanda said the institute has continually reviewed and revised the contents and format of the competition in order to make it more intellectually challenging, relevant, current, and credible, adding that the applicants are screened and only those who met the criteria for entry are then subjected to an online test on individual basis. The best performing applicants, according to him, then qualify for the finals.

While appealing to its corporate organisations and members to partner the institute in designing, funding and donating prizes for the competition, he said: “I assure you that the relationship will be a mutually rewarding and beneficial one. With such support, we would be able to expand the scope and duration of the competition as well as encourage much larger participation of young managers across the country.”

Organised by the institute, the annual competition established in 1974 is to ensure that young graduate managers, between the ages of 25 and 40 years, are imbued with innovative research skills and competence, to hone their skills in gathering, analysing and using information to solve management problems and challenges.